Indian-origin academic wins maths 'Nobel' Fields Medal
New York, Aug. Aug 2 : Indian-origin academic Akshay Venkatesh has been awarded the Fields Medal, which is often called the Nobel Prize of mathematics.
The award to the 36-year-old academic was announced on Wednesday at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Rio de Janeiro.
Venkatesh, who made a mark as a child prodigy, is a professor at Stanford University and is set to move to the School of Mathematics of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton on August 15.
He is the second Indian-origin mathematician to win the prize after Manjul Bhargava, a Princeton University professor, who received it in 2014.
The other three winners of the medal awarded every four years usuallyto four mathematicians are Caucher Birkar, 40, of the University of Cambridge; Alessio Figalli, 34, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and Peter Scholze, of the University of Bonn.
The prize carries a gold medal and an award of Canadian $15,000.
Ali Nesin of Turkey was awarded on Wednesday at the Congress another prestigious award, the Leelavati Prize sponsored by Infosys for increasing public awareness of mathematics.
Nesin is the founder of the Mathematics Village, a unique institution offering short immersion courses in mathematics for high school and college students.
The prize is named for the treatise of 12th century mathematician Bhaskara II and carries a Rs 1 million-award. Venkatesh was awarded the prize for his work in analytic number theory, homogeneous dynamics, topology, and representation theory.
The Institute for Advanced Study said he works "at the intersection of analytic number theory, algebraic number theory, and representation theory."
He won India's SASTRA Ramanujan Prize, founded by Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology and Research Academy (SASTRA) in Tamil Nadu in 2008 and the InfoSys Prize given by the Infosys Science Foundation in 2016.
Venkatesh moved to Australia from New Delhi with his parents when he was two years old.
When he was 12, he won medals at the International Physics Olympiad and International Mathematics Olympiad and joined the University of Western Australia at 14 and graduated with a first class honours degree at 15.
At 16, he started his post-graduate studies at Princeton University and completed his PhD when he was 22 He was previously an instructor at Massachusetts Institute of the Technology, and an associate professor at New York University.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Sanjay Raut demands re-election, alleges irregularities in EVMs during Maharashtra polls
Mumbai, Nov 25: Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Monday demanded a re-election in Maharashtra using ballot papers, claiming there were irregularities with the electronic voting machines (EVMs).
Talking to reporters, Raut alleged several complaints about EVMs malfunctioning and questioned the integrity of the recently held elections.
The BJP-led Mahayuti won 230 out of 288 seats in the assembly elections, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi managed 46 seats, with Shiv Sena (UBT) winning just 20 out of 95 seats it contested.
"We have received nearly 450 complaints regarding EVMs. Despite raising objections repeatedly, no action has been taken on these issues. How can we say these elections were conducted fairly? Hence, I demand that the results be set aside and elections be held again using ballot papers," Raut said.
Citing some instances, he said a candidate in Nashik reportedly received only four votes despite having 65 votes from his family, while in Dombivli, discrepancies were found in EVM tallies, and election officials refused to acknowledge the objections.
The Sena (UBT) leader also questioned the credibility of the landslide victories of some candidates, saying, "What revolutionary work have they done to receive more than 1.5 lakh votes? Even leaders who recently switched parties have become MLAs. This raises suspicions. For the first time, a senior leader like Sharad Pawar has expressed doubts about EVMs, which cannot be ignored."
Asked about the MVA's poor performance in the elections, Raut rejected the idea of blaming a single individual.
"We fought as a united MVA. Even a leader like Sharad Pawar, who commands immense respect in Maharashtra, faced defeat. This shows that we need to analyse the reasons behind the failure. One of the reasons is EVM irregularities and the misuse of the system, unconstitutional practices, and even judicial decisions left unresolved by Justice Chandrachud," he said.
Raut stressed that though internal differences might have existed within the MVA, the failure was collective.
He also accused the Mahayuti of conducting the elections in an unfair manner.
"I cannot call the elections fair given the numerous reports of discrepancies in EVMs, mismatched numbers, and vote irregularities across the state," Raut said.
